It is becoming increasingly evident in cancer treatment that simultaneously targeting multiple critical pathways, using combinations of chemotherapeutic drugs, can enhance outcome1-5. Currently, oncologists lack the tools necessary to predict the success of various combination treatments from one patient to the next. Sensitivity to different classes of chemotherapeutics is highly variable, due in part to intratumor heterogeneity1. Recent findings attribute this heterogeneity to a rare population of cancer stem cells (CSCs) which are now being targeted for therapy. A barrier to this approach is the limitation of having very few available cells on which to test drug combinations6, 7.
Colon cancer is the third most common cause of cancer and cancer death in the United States. Colon cancer stem cells (CCSC's) have only recently been recognized as a potential cause of colon cancer with several markers identified. As such, this cell population has also been targeted for future therapeutics, but the rarity of CCSC's makes it difficult to screen potential agents.